Dr. Gwendolyn Elizabeth Boyd

Title: President, Alabama State University

A Montgomery, Alabama., native, Boyd became president of her alma mater in February 2014, after spending more than three decades in in the Washington, D.C., area. Boyd was the first African-American female to earn a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Yale University. Her career includes time at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and as an analyst in the Strategic Systems Programs, where she conducted evaluations of Strategic weapons systems on submarines.